Telephony networks have evolved dramatically over the past several decades thanks to an array of new technologies. These new technologies have, among other things, allowed service providers to create and introduce new telephony services into their networks, and, once introduced, customize the services to meet the needs of individual customers (also called “service subscribers” or simply “subscribers” in this specification). Service providers are constantly seeking to develop and commercialize these new services to satisfy customer desires and increase revenue.
One such enabling technology is the intelligent telephony network (or “intelligent network”) which takes “intelligence” out of the telephony voice switch and places it in computer nodes that are distributed throughout the telephone network. The intelligent network architecture in its basic form is a traditional telephony voice network overlaid with a packet-data network used to more efficiently control and monitor the voice network. In intelligent networks, the signals required to set up, monitor, and take down calls in the circuit-switched, time division multiplexed (“TDM”) voice network (the “service logic” signals) are implemented in the more efficient packet-data network which is external to the voice circuit switching systems.
The Advanced Intelligent Network (or “AIN”) architecture expands the potential of early intelligent networks and provides greater flexibility in creation and customization of telephony services for customers. Among other features, the AIN includes a set of standards governing intelligence in public networks which allow equipment manufacturers and service providers to design and develop custom services on various non-switch platforms that can interact with various telephony network nodes.
Specifications of the various releases of AIN specifications may be found in Bellcore AIN GR1299 Issue 6 and later editions, Bellcore AIN GR1298 Issue 6 and later editions, and related Bellcore standards (hereinafter “AIN Architecture Standards”). Bellcore was renamed Telcordia Technologies in 1999 and, therefore, the cited specifications and later editions may bear that name. The disclosures of the AIN Architecture Standards are incorporated by reference herein in their entirety. Those skilled in the art will recognize other call signaling and control technologies compatible with the concepts of the present invention are comparable to the AIN and will be considered within the scope of the description and claims of the invention that follow.
One of the major benefits of the advanced intelligent network was the creation of open interfaces which allowed service providers to introduce network services more rapidly for customer use. The AIN also allows for the separation of service specific functions and data from other network resources. Through use of these open interfaces and data exchange, service development and implementation was greatly accelerated.
Many of these telephony services provided to customers are currently implemented on end office switches (“EO switches,” also called “end exchanges”). An end office is a type of central office that connects directly to customers and is where customer lines and trunks are interconnected. Customer telephony services may also be implemented in private branch exchanges (“PBXs”) operated as part of enterprise telephony networks. Throughout this specification, a reference to an EO switch shall be understood to mean a switch that provides services to customers, subscribers, or end-users, of telecommunication services and shall include all switches implementing telephony services for customers that are capable of directly or indirectly interacting with an intelligent network. The EO switch may take on many different configurations but in most cases will at least provide voice-based communications in a circuit-switched, packet-switched, or wireless infrastructure. Nortel Networks' DMS-100 system is an example of an EO switch. Those of ordinary skill in the art will realize that other telephony network switches from Nortel Networks and other manufacturers, including those not located in a telephone service provider's “central office” or “end-office” may perform similar or comparable functions to the DMS-100 system, and are equivalent.
Although there has been a proliferation of telephony services, telephony service subscribers have had limited ability to control these services and the call-related information associated with the services. For example, in some cases, a service subscriber must call their service provider and directly request the desired change or information. This option is obviously both expensive and time consuming. Often, a service subscriber must navigate lengthy audio call menus and wait on hold in queue before ever talking to a service provider representative. When the service subscriber finally speaks to a representative, the service subscriber may not have all the information readily available that is needed to make informed decisions about the service change. The communication between the subscriber and representative may, therefore, be unnecessarily long. Furthermore, the representative must then take additional time to make the changes to the services via an interface with the service control system. Alternatively, the representative might be required to submit a service request to have yet another service provider employee make the necessary changes, thereby adding another layer of delay and cost.
Another option typically available to service subscribers is to use a telephone keypad to make changes to services using dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF) signaling from the subscriber's telephone. In this, perhaps, slightly better method, a service subscriber can make more timely changes without involving a service representative. Unfortunately, to use this method, the subscriber must often decipher a long string of numerical or symbol codes to change service options and wade through lengthy, complicated call menus. In addition, the subscriber may only be able to make changes to certain already provisioned services using this method and may not be able to activate or deactivate services. Further, this method is subject to potential mistakes from dialing chains of DTMF codes.
Some telephony service providers also allow subscribers to request activation or deactivation of services using internet-based input from the subscriber. For example, a service provider may allow subscribers to access a page the service provider hosts on the World Wide Web. The customer's desired changes are typically recorded by the web-based program and transmitted to the service provider employees that are responsible for customer service provisioning. The responsible service provider employees must then take the information and make the requested changes. This additional step significantly increases the cost of the transaction for the service provider and may significantly delay implementation of the subscriber's preferences. In addition, such current “web-based” provisioning solutions may only allow a subscriber to request activation and deactivation of services. It does not allow management of the services such as changing different attributes of a particular service. For example, a subscriber can only request activation or deactivation of a speed dial service, but cannot enter a list of desired numbers for the speed dial service.
A number of telephony services also collect and maintain call-related information. Unfortunately, many subscribers do not have real-time access to such information. Some of the call-related information stored on the EO switch cannot be accessed by subscribers at all. For example, the EO switch may collect and maintain a list of the calls attempted, calls completed, and calls made to a particular subscriber line. Many subscribers with analog “plain old telephone service” (“POTS”) lines and legacy telephone equipment may not be able to access the information stored by the call log service at all. Other subscribers may only be able to access the information if a telephony service provider has set up an interactive voice response (“IVR”) system that essentially “reads” call log information to subscribers over their telephone. Subscribers who have purchased telephone equipment using special protocols, such as the Analog Display Services Interface (“ADSI”) protocol, may be able to retrieve and view call log information using the small screen format of their special equipment, but only when the equipment terminates the line for which the service is provisioned.
In light of these limitations, there is a need to provide telephony service subscribers with easier access to information about available services and to enable subscribers to activate available services, manage services, and deactivate undesired services (collectively, “service management”) with minimal or no intervention by the service provider. In addition, there is an identified need for subscribers to dynamically manage their telecommunications services irrespective of their geographic location. Furthermore, there is a need for service subscribers to access, from different devices and locations, telephony service control and call-related information collected by various telephony services.
There is also an identified need for a subscriber to dynamically manage telecommunications services without having to listen to audio prompts or otherwise access or memorize code lists required to manage services using DTMF manipulation. There is a further need for a relatively simple interface that provides subscribers with information about available services and allows subscribers to control telecommunications services minimizing potential mistakes resulting from dialing chains of DTMF codes.